“MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE explores the unique bonds of male friendship among three men experiencing the changes and challenges of mid-life. They have been best friends since college but now, in their 40s, are navigating through the second act of their lives. Joe (Romano) is a friendly, slightly neurotic, recently separated father of two who had dreams of being a professional golfer. Now he owns and runs a party store. Terry (Bakula) is a laid-back, handsome actor who seems to breeze through life (and women). Lately, he’s spending more time working as a temp than as an actor. And Owen (Braugher) is an overstressed husband and father of three who endures constant criticism from his father, for whom he works as a car salesman.
These friends face very different challenges. Joe, who currently lives in a hotel, tries to connect with his kids and is dipping his toe in the dating pool, while also struggling with the gambling problem that may have ended his marriage. The unmarried Terry scoffs at domestic issues but sometimes wonders if his own single life is all it’s cracked up to be. Owen does everything he can to climb the sales board at his father’s car dealership and keep his cool over the seemingly endless renovation project in the home he can barely afford. Through it all, these men are there for each other when it counts.” – from http://www.tnt.tv/series/menofacertainage/about/?contentId=52922
I’ve been watching this new American comedy/drama that airs Monday nights on TNT. If you’ve watched this show, then you will know that I am several years away from being the age of the men portrayed on this show. With that being said, I still relate to their situations. I don’t think that I can relate to either one of these men entirely; however I can see several things in their lives that I see in mine. Does that mean I’m reaching my mid-life? Am I about to hit my mid-life crisis? Or have I reached that point and now adjusting to my “new” life?
According to a column in the USA Today, the current life expectancy for a male is 75.2 years. Doing some basic math here, I calculate that half that would be 37.6 years. So I will hit my mid-life point in March of 2015. That’s only five short years away. So technically, I could be reaching my mid-life crisis. Maybe it’s a little soon to be worrying about that, but then again, maybe not.
So I decided to check out some symptoms of a mid-life crisis. Here they are:
1. Looking into the mirror and you no longer recognize yourself.
2. Desiring to quit a good job.
3. Unexplained bouts of depression when doing tasks that used to make you happy.
4. Changing or investigating new religions, churches or new age philosophy.
5. Change of habits. Activities which used to bring pleasure now are boring. Unable to complete or concentrate on tasks which used to be easy.
6. It feels good to get hurt.
7. Wanting to run away from everything.
8. A desire to get into physical shape.
9. Irritability or unexpected anger.
10. Change in allergies.
11. Desire for physical -Free Flowing- movement (Running, Biking, Dance, Fast red sports cars, Sky diving, etc).
12. Exploring new musical tastes.
13. Sudden desire to learn how to play an instrument.
14. Sudden interest in drawing, painting, writing books or poetry.
15. Shifting sleep patterns (Typically to less).
16. Thinking about death, wondering about the nature of death.
17. Changes to the balance of vitamins you take. Or taking dietary supplements for the purposes of extending life.
18. Extreme changes to what you eat.
19. Excessively buying new clothes and taking more time to look good.
20. Hair changes. (Natural changes in thickness, luster, color or Assisted changes in dying hair suddenly or shaving your head bald)
21. A desire to surround yourself with different settings.
22. Hanging out with a different generation as their energy and ideas stimulate you.
23. Restarting things, which you dropped 20 years earlier.
24. Upset at where society is going. Experience a desire to change the world for the better.
25. Feeling trapped or tied down by fiscal responsibilities.
26. Leaving (Mentally or Physically) family or feeling trapped in current family relationships.
27. A desire to teach others or become a healer.
28. Desiring a simple life.
29. Excessively looking back to one’s childhood.
30. Playing again just to play!
31. Keep re-asking yourself: “Where am I going with my life?”
32. Getting fixated on new “wonder” solutions to problems.
33. Recently experiencing something extremely stressful. Stress can trigger a Midlife transformation. Some examples include: Changing Jobs, Divorce, Death of someone close, Chemical/Toxic exposure upon the body or experiencing a major illness.
34. Doing things that get you into trouble when it surprises everyone as being out of character.
35. Someone unexpectedly exclaims: “You are going through a midlife crisis!”
Now the ones that are in bold are the ones that I can see in myself. Notice that almost half of these are in bold font. I’m wondering what that means? It may mean absolutely nothing, but for some reason, I really do not believe that for one moment. I truly believe that I have hit that point in my life that I’ve realized that I have lived longer than I have left to live. So now that I’ve come to that realization, I believe that it’s time to make the most of the amount of time that I do have left on this earth. I must live by the quote I made mention of in my last blog, Fortune favors the bold.
I can’t help but look at this list and think that this is something everyone at every age goes through when they want a life change. True, a lot of people like comfort and stability, but many people get bored with the daily grind. So thing such as 4, 5, 7, 9,11,12,14,15 and 90% of the ones you in particular have bolded just seem to occur at urning points in life, I think.
True, these come at a mid-life crisis I’m sure, but you’re almost not yourself at all. Kindda like losing your old identity in a new you. If you feel firm and secure with who you are and for the most part what you want, maybe you’re just thinking a little too hard :p